This invention relates to the art of water jetting apparatus for cleaning sewer and drain lines and, more particularly, to improvements in portable water jetting apparatus.
Water jetters are well known and comprise a motor driven pump for delivering pulses of water under high pressure through a jetter hose which is fed into a drain or sewer line to clear blockages in the lines caused by grease, sludge and the like. Generally, the hose has an outlet nozzle designed to pressurize the blockage while directing a part of the fluid pressure rearwardly of the nozzle so as to advance the hose through the drain or sewer line as the blockage deteriorates. The motor and pump or water jetter unit which provides the pulsating delivery of water through the hose is not particularly big or heavy, but portability of the apparatus is made difficult by the fact that it is often necessary to have 100 to 200 feet of hose to feed into a particular drain line to be cleaned. Accordingly, a variety of two-wheeled and four-wheeled carts and stands have been devised to support a water jetter unit and a jetter hose reel for rolling movement from one location to another along an underlying support surface. While thus providing portability, the arrangements heretofore available have been complex with regard to the structure of the cart and the mounting of the water jetter unit and hose reel thereon. Further, such prior arrangements are in many respects difficult for one person to manipulate with respect to lifting the apparatus into or from a transporting vehicle such as an automobile or truck, or transporting the apparatus from one elevation to another such as along a stairway, are inconvenient and/or of limited convenience with respect to use and manipulation in areas with space restrictions, and do not optimize either a storage operation or efficient use of storage space. In this respect, for example, the water jetter unit and hose reel are often permanently mounted on the stand or cart making it difficult for one person to manipulate the equipment into and out of small spaces and, because of the weight, making it difficult for one person to move the equipment up and down stairways or into and out of a transporting vehicle such as an automobile or truck.
Moreover, the foregoing problems are also encountered in connection with the profiles of the cart, water jetter unit and hose reel which provide for the overall assembly to be undesirably large and/or difficult to balance and/or guide when wheeling the assembly along an underlying surface. Further, while one or the other of the water jetter unit and hose reel may be detachable from the cart in an effort to facilitate use and/or storage of the apparatus, the remaining structure is not sufficiently reduced in size, weight, and/or profile to minimize the foregoing problems attendant to maneuvering, transporting, loading and unloading and storage of the apparatus.